Shiva Feshareki is an internationally acclaimed experimental composer, NTS radio DJ and turntablist. Her diverse output explores acoustics, perspective and the sound of electricity through wide ranging practises that incorporate classical methodology. In 2017, she was honoured with the British Composer Award for Innovation from BASCA.

Her solo turntable performances fuse together sonic palettes using hyperphysical sampling techniques. Cuts from drum and bass, garage, gabber, deep minimalism and classical orchestral works are yielded to create complex live compositions that are as kinetic as they are delicate.

Her compositional work for orchestra is equally transformative, exploring the physicality of sound in relation to light, sculpture and movement. ’GABA-analogue’ (2017) employed space as a compositional tool to create a surround-sound orchestra inside London’s Printworks nightclub. An alternative form of the composition was also presented at Musikhuset, Denmark; both pieces engaged with sound as both a ‘sculpture in space’ and as a ‘medium bending through time’.

Feshareki obtained a Doctorate of Music from the Royal College of Music and her experience as researcher was central to her work on ‘Still Point’ by Daphne Oram (1949). The extraordinary story behind the project began with the discovery of the incomplete composition nearly 70 years after if had been rejected by the BBC, where Oram worked as a sound engineer. Shiva Feshareki and fellow composer James Bulley completed the radical composition, originally written for turntables, double orchestra and five microphones. The story culminated with its world premiere at the BBC Proms in 2018, performed by Feshareki and the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall - the venue for which it was originally composed.

Other recent performances include Saturnalia (Milan), Hyperreality Festival of Club Culture (Vienna), Moscow Museum of Modern Art for the VAC Foundation (Moscow), Mutek (Montreal), The Tanks at Tate Modern (London), Southbank Centre ‘Concrete Lates’ Takeover (London) and Nikolaj Kunsthal (Copenhagen) as part of Haroon Mirza’s installation Dancing with the Unknown.

Upcoming major works include a commission from the BBC Concert Orchestra: a brand new composition for solo turntables and orchestra to be premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall during The EFG London Jazz Festival (late 2018). She will also be the Featured Composer at London’s Spitalfields Festival in December 2018, where she will be showcasing another new score, revisions of ‘GABA-analogue’ and ‘O’ and a new interdisciplinary collaboration with artist Haroon Mirza. 2018 will also see the exciting release of her debut album on ‘RESIST’ as well as a special release on Ash Koosha’s new record label ‘Realms’.

Venus/Zohreh, The Planets 2018, Sound UK

(September 2018)

Her finished piece consists of just five notes, but within those notes is a “sonic sculpture” that gradually forms as the quartet explore their sound world. It’s as ambitious and inventive as the project itself.

Time Jonze, The Guardian

Daphne Oram Still Point, BBC Proms: Pioneers of Sound

Royal Albert Hall (July 2018)

The orchestration is rich mid-century modernism – full of spooky dissonances and nods to Messiaen and Stravinsky – but the real USP comes in the form of Shiva Feshareki’s attempts to recreate Oram’s dystopian turntable interludes, manipulating three 78rpm decks to create what sounds like air-raid sirens and the kind of woozy turntable trickery we associate with Kid Koala or DJ Spooky.

John Lewis, The Guardian

‘In conversation: Shiva Feshareki’

March 2018

Shiva is the most contemporary, cutting-edge expression of turntablism: the perception of a turntable as an instrument to ply and wield.

Ryan Walmsley, Strange Sounds from Beyond

The Wire on Shiva's Spatialisation techniques

A long low note on the piano is echoed by the opposite piano; it repeats and speeds up as steady cymbals crash and ripples of strings, woodwind, drums and flutes flourish, until the call and response seems to come not just from the two platforms and walkways but from everywhere at once.

The Wire

Interview: Shiva Feshareki

April 2017

Her manipulations illuminate the most incredible textural and harmonic treasures embedded in the corners of the music; the sort of details that are otherwise hidden behind the framework of melody and song

Her finished piece consists of just five notes, but within those notes is a “sonic sculpture” that gradually forms as the quartet explore their sound world. It’s as ambitious and inventive as the project itself.

The orchestration is rich mid-century modernism – full of spooky dissonances and nods to Messiaen and Stravinsky – but the real USP comes in the form of Shiva Feshareki’s attempts to recreate Oram’s dystopian turntable interludes, manipulating three 78rpm decks to create what sounds like air-raid sirens and the kind of woozy turntable trickery we associate with Kid Koala or DJ Spooky.

A long low note on the piano is echoed by the opposite piano; it repeats and speeds up as steady cymbals crash and ripples of strings, woodwind, drums and flutes flourish, until the call and response seems to come not just from the two platforms and walkways but from everywhere at once.

Her manipulations illuminate the most incredible textural and harmonic treasures embedded in the corners of the music; the sort of details that are otherwise hidden behind the framework of melody and song